Review – HEIST SOCIETY

TITLE: HEIST SOCIETY

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SYNOPSIS: When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s history–and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

REVIEW: Katarina Bishop, also known as Kat, comes from a family of thieves. From since her childhood, she has been taught the skills needed in order to become successful in “the family business”. But Kat grows tired of her way of life and tries and successfully manages to to escape it for a little while. But not even thieves always get what they want, and when her father is the lone suspect of a crime he didn’t commit, she must re enter the world she tried so hard to leave to prove her father’s innocence.

HEIST SOCIETY was a really good book. I really enjoyed reading it. I seriously cannot say enough about how good this book was. The plot was different and interesting. With HEIST SOCIETY, Ally Carter introduced a whole new concept where fiction became a fantasy. No, there are no dragons or evil wizards, but the story itself is a fantasy to every normal person. Who can image being part of one of the best family of thieves?

I couldn’t stop reading HEIST SOCIETY. It drew me in from the very beginning and it wouldn’t let me go. The plot went at the right pace, and the “action” was perfect. There was a perfect combination of more intimate scenes, usually only involving one or two character, and more chaotic scenes with the whole crew – other teenagers who help Kat with her mission.

I absolutely adored the characters in HEIST SOCIETY. I liked how Ally Carter managed to includes at least some part of each of the characters’ background stories. Some more than others. Some background stories were mysterious and intriguing. It made me want to read the book even more. Another thing I liked about the characters was that they were all unique in their own way. One character wasn’t too much like another character. They were all well developed and I loved their different personalities. I also loved reading about the relationship between all the characters. Whether it was between Kat and her dad, Kat and the crew, or Kat and the scary, evil mobster. And of course, we can’t forget the relationship between Kat and Hale.

When I first picked up HEIST SOCIETY to read, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was familiar with Ally Carter’s other YA series, the Gallagher Girls (I had read all them). I didn’t know whether it was going to be similar or different. It was both of them. It was still fiction, not sci-fi or fantasy and the girls featured in both books were both not normal. Cammie is a spy, Kat is a thief. But, they had very different plots. And unlike some authors who write series, Ally Carter has yet to fully develop a formula for writing them. That is a good thing.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised when I first picked up HEIST SOCIETY. And I’m extremely glad I did. I strongly urge everyone who hasn’t read it yet to do so. It really is a fantastic series.